Annabelle Rankin
Australian politician
Died when: 78 years 33 days (937 months)Star Sign: Leo
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Dame Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin DBE (28 July 1908 – 30 August 1986) was an Australian politician and diplomat.She was the first woman from Queensland elected to parliament, the first woman federal departmental minister, and the first Australian woman to be appointed head of a foreign mission.
Rankin was born in Brisbane, the daughter of state MP Colin Rankin.A member of the Liberal Party, she was elected to the Senate at the 1946 federal election, taking her seat the following year.
She was the second woman elected to the Senate, after Dorothy Tangney.Rankin was the Liberal Party's chief whip from 1947 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1966; she remains the longest-serving whip in the party's history, in either chamber of parliament.
In 1966, she was made Minister for Housing in the Holt Government, becoming the first woman to hold a ministerial portfolio.
She held that position until her retirement from politics in 1971.As High Commissioner to New Zealand from 1971 to 1974, she was the first woman to head an Australian mission overseas.
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